JR Elsewhere

Archive for ‘music’

A comedian’s life doesn’t have to be fun – Taiwan’s entertainer Hsieh Hsin-ta (謝新達), better known as Chu Ke-liang (豬哥亮), had seen tough times before successfully returning to the stage in his later years. According to a Taipei Times article in 2009, he had ruined his finances in the 1990s, incurring debts by gambling heavily. Hiding from his creditors, and a family feud, defined that decade.

On one end he was the affirmation of the KMT colonialist stereotype of Taiwanese as vulgar, low class, silly, impish and absurd. He was the validation of Waisheng class supremacy, not unlike the way African Americans have been depicted as caricatures to reinforce White supremacy in classic American film–the minstrel. Zhu Ge-liang was the caricature of Taiwaneseness to satisfy the desires of a Waisheng elite.

On the other end, Zhu was loved by Taiwanese audiences for creating Taiwanese space in media at a time when the Waisheng aesthetic was still (and is still) the predominant image. He was, in a way, a rejection of that Waisheng aesthetic.

[…]

Chu was born in Kaohsiung in 1946. He died after a long battle against cancer, aged 70. Reportedly, he may eventually be buried in Keelung.

The WYFR transmission site was bought by WRMI, another broadcaster in Florida, in 2013, less than half a year after WYFR had ceased operation. WRMI’s broadcasting schedule looks like a who-is-who of European broadcasters who abandoned shortwave in recent years, and who now re-appear on WRMI. The schedule looks pretty complicated to me, but if you switch on your radio somewhere in northern-central Europe during the second half of the night, you are likely to hear some of them on 11580 kHz: Radio Ukraine International from 23:30 to 23:59 UTC, and then Radio Slovakia, for example.

Later in the night (or early morning), it will be Ralph Gordon Stair, a usually ill-tempered preacher. So to quite a degree, the transmission site has remained religious, because Stair buys tons of airtime, via satellite and shortwave – from WRMI not least.

Whichever way you look at it, Okeechobee is likely to remain on the world map. Until doomsday, anyway.

===============
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The A-16 broadcasting season started on March 27 (and will end late in October). The following is a list of some of my listening logs during the past few weeks, in northern Germany.International Telecommunication Union letter codes used in the table underneath:

It had been no small affair: when the Moranbong Band’s train entered China on Wednesday, passing through China’s border city Dandong, the Korean Workers Party’s deputy propaganda director was on board, the “political knowledge office” (政知局), particularly designed by the Chinese authorities to disseminate truth, knowledge and common sense through the “social media”, reported on Friday. Some time earlier, a number of North Korean officials, Kim Ki-nam and China’s ambassador to North Korea, Li Jinjun (李进军), among them, had seen the military pop band off in Pyongyang. In August, the “political knowledge office”, republished here by the Shenyang Daily website, had successfully performed in Moscow.

It’s seen as the latest sign that the two countries’ longstanding alliance is on the mend again, after being strained by North Korea’s third nuclear test in 2013,

On December 10, one day after entering China through Dandong, a city right on the Sino-Korean border, the troupe reached Beijing. The visit, originally scheduled to last from December 10 to 15, had been announced on very short notice, and surprisingly, according to the “political knowledge office” who reportedly said on their Weiboaccount that they had only got the information when the Moranbong Band, and their colleagues from North Korea’s State Merited Chorus, were already travelling.

After Liu Yunshan‘s visit to Pyongyang, the highest level of North Korean culture was now visiting Beijing, Shenyang Daily online wrote on Friday, still leaning on the correct information from the “political knowledge office”.

Maybe next time, China’s media should only get and publish the information once the two North Korean bands are on their way back to Pyongyang – and only after having performed on all agreed occasions.

The coming hours or days may tell what went “wrong”, be it on the “working level”, as stated by Xinhua, be it at the Chinese and North Korean top level – if the North Koreans had planned the propaganda implosion from the beginning.

When it comes to the spoilt bunch that claims to be North Korea’s rightful leaders, and their funny stuff, Beijing’s face skin is already very thick. But it can’t be stuff of dreams to be China’s ambassador to the mysterious northeastern neighbor.

1. Radio Polonia’s German Service

Possibly along with Radio Budapest, and contrary to Radio Prague and Radio Berlin International (East Germany), Radio Polonia , Poland’s external radio station, was a rather liberal voice from the Warsaw Treaty bloc through the 1970s and 1980s.

A Radio Polonia QSL card, confirming a report on the station’s broadcast on February 9, 1986 at 16:00 UTC on 6095 kHz.

The German department, started in 1950, wasn’t afraid of controversy, at least not in the 1980s. Even angry letters from West Germans who had once lived in the former eastern territories occasionally made it on the air (probably, the German department didn’t get too many letters of this kind anyway). The station never became one of my absolute favorites on shortwave, but many West Germans listened regularly.

2014 won’t mark the death of Radio Polonia, but the station’s German department has become history on June 30. Also in June this year, the Polish-abroad programs were terminated, and the Hebrew programs, Kol Polin, only established in 2007, apparently ended earlier this year.

The table underneath will appear messy unless you click the headline of this particular post. The table is broader than the two columns of the overall blog frontpage. However, it is more convenient to find with a search engine this way.

kHz

Station

Ctry

L.

Day

GMT

S

I

O

15235

Channel Africa

AFS

E

July 2

17:00

5

5

5

918

Radio Slovenia

SVN

E

July 2

20:30

4

4

4

918

Radio Slovenia

SVN

G

July 2

20:34

4

4

4

918

Radio Slovenia

SVN

Sl

July 2

20:38

4

4

4

9540

Radio Japan

J

C

July 3

15:30

3

2

2

3775.6

DARC/DL0DL

D

G

July 3

17:30

4

4

4

9420

Voice of Greece

GRC

Gr

July 4

18:55

4

3

3

6185

RTI Taipei

G

G

July 4

19:27

5

5

5

15120

AIR Delhi

IND

H

July 5

04:07

4

2

2

15120

CRI Beijing

CHN

E

July 5

04:07

3

2

2

3995

HCJB Weenermoor

D

G

July 5

06:42

5

5

5

7365

HCJB Weenermoor

D

G

July 5

09:30

3

4

3

3995

HCJB Weenermoor

D

G

July 5

15:03

4

3

3

918

Radio Slovenia

SVN

G

July 5

20:33

5

5

5

15345

RAE Buenos Aires

ARG

G

July 7

21:02

2

5

2

15345

RAE Buenos Aires

ARG

G

July 7

21:05

5

5

4

11710.4

RAE Buenos Aires

ARG

E

July 16

02:28

4

3

3

6000

RHC Havana Cuba

CUB

E

July 16

03:00

5

4

4

3774

DARC/DL0DL

D

G

July 17

17:30

5

4

4

3995

HCJB Weenermoor

D

G

July 19

04:30

4

3

4

21480

Bible Voice BCN

MDG

E

July 19

11:21

3

3

3

9965

Radio Cairo 1)

EGY

A

July 20

00:46

4

5

4

9315

Radio Cairo 2)

EGY

Sp

July 20

01:00

3

5

2

5850

RMI / Homecoming
Radio

USA

E

July 20

01:06

4

4

4

6090

Carribean Beacon

AIA

E

July 20

01:54

4

4

4

9315

Radio Cairo 3)

EGY

E

July 20

02:01

4

4

2

7505

Radio WRNO

USA

E

July 20

02:36

4

5

4

3200

TWR Swaziland

SWZ

E

July 20

03:00

2

3

2

6000

RHC Havana Cuba

CUB

E

July 20

04:00

4

5

4

15120

Voice of Nigeria 4)

NIG

E

July 20

08:17

4

3

3

11980.1

Radio Dniprovska
Hvylya 5)

UKR

?

July 20

08:00

3

4

3

11730

Radio Belarus

BLR

BR

July 20

11:34

4

5

3

15344.3

RAE Buenos Aires

ARG

E

July 23

18:26

5

4

4

7550

AIR Delhi 6)

IND

F

July 25

20:15

5

5

4

7550

AIR Delhi

IND

H

July 25

20:34

5

5

4

7550

AIR Delhi

IND

E

July 25

20:45

5

5

4

3995

HCJB Weenermoor

D

G

July 26

04:30

5

5

4

6130

PBS Tibet 7)

TIB

E

July 26

16:30

4

3

3

11710

RAE Buenos Aires

ARG

E

July 30

02:06

4

5

3

____

Footnotes

1) A splendid signal and – by the standards of Egyptian foreign radio anyway – splendid modulation, too. But that was only the Arabic program.2) As far as the Spanish program, a bit later and 650 kHz further down, was concerned, modulation sucked as it does with all foreign-language programs from Cairo.3) Of course, the English program’s modulation was no exception. It sucked, too. What a waste of energy.4) Strong interference from China Radio International (CRI), by now the most undesirable shortwave station worldwide, in my view. Chinese shortwave radio appears to be everywhere, especially on frequencies where they can block sensitive or offending broadcasts, such as from Radio Japan. However, a primitive rotatable dipole antenna with a reasonably good directional effect worked wonders to push CRI (northeastern beam) aside and to get a clearer signal from Africa. Hence, at times, O=3.5) I probably can’t tell Russian from Ukrainian. Therefore, I left the language column open here, with a question mark.6) It was a surprise to find an All India Radio program in French on 7550 kHz at the time – it ought to be a Hindi program. I did enjoy the French program very much, because their approach is somewhat different to the English overseas service. It was a music program, and the French speakers actually explained the music.7) Frequencies less than 10,000 kHz usually work best at nighttime or during winter. When tuning in to PBS Tibet on 6130 kHz at 16:00 UTC here in Northern Germany this summer, the signal isn’t better than O=2. By 16:30 UTC, it will usually improve to O=3, which is reasonably easy to listen to. Not necessarily true for reception in other places, obviously.

Like this:

1. Military Pop

Update [20130803]: the show in full on youtube ——–>

<——–

Tianjin Satellite Television is going to broadcast a tribute show to celebrate the founding anniversary of the “People’s Liberation Army”. Han Hong (韩红), a singer and songwriter of Han Chinese and Tibetan origin and host of the show, explains in an Enorth (Tianjin) article of August 1 that

through the army songs, we want to communicate to young people how the two words “military people” are sacred. […] Some people have doubts how a theme like ‘Resonant Army Songs’ can be close to young people. I’m particularly looking forward to kids born after 1980 and 1990 singing army songs together. This will bring about a completely new feeling.

According to Baike Baidu, Han Hong is a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Her father’s nationality is Han, and he had been among the young people who were sent to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution, to learn from the rural population. In 2009, Han Hong joined the political department of the Air Force Art Troupe (or song and dance ensemble) and has since served as the department’s deputy director. Her fans believe that her voice comes across as naturally asSarah Brightman‘s, but those who (strongly) dislike her find her style artificial.

Han Hong is joined by four commenters (not quite a jury, as competition isn’t meant to be at the center of the show): Zhou Xiao’ou (周晓欧), Man Wenjun (满文军), Li Danyang (李丹阳), and Cai Guoqing (蔡国庆).

“Way-finding” strictly respected historical truth (严格尊重历史真实) and followed the principle of not falsifying the major events, but being unconstrained by minor matters (大事不虚、小事不拘), Xiao Huaiyuan wrote in an article for People’s Daily (人民日报), republished by Enorth on June 20.

Michelle Obama‘s absence from the American-Chinese summit in California was a diplomatic misstep, Daniel W. Drezner, a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, argued on Foreign Policy(behind a registration wall, possibly). Her absence was an own-goal, Drezner believes, because this was one of the rather few occasions where she could really have mattered in the world of politics. Too many Chinese might be disappointed that America’s first lady didn’t meet up with China’s first lady, Peng Liyuan.

Reportedly, Mrs Obama wanted to stay in Washington, to celebrate the birthday of one of her daughters.

Isaac Stone Fishdisagreed with Drezner’s criticism. He referred to the songs Peng used to sing in full PLA gear, and especially this song, where she pretended to be Tibetan, lauding the PLA for “liberating” Tibet.

Anti should know better – there are even Chinese online discussions about foreign broadcasters on shortwave. Not to mention that only every second Chinese citizen is a regluar internet user so far.

____________

Update / Correction (Febr 26, 2013):

the BBC statement is about jamming of its shortwave programs in English.

____________

The following is a recording of a Falun-Gong-leaning station, the Sound of Hope (希望之声) being jammed.

You can hear the jamming station’s output rise after 35 seconds into the recording, and the “alternative” program, Chinese folk music known as “Firedrake” (火龙干扰) sets in after one minute. (Recorded in June, 2011.)

It appears that regular Chinese domestic programs on shortwave are also at times used to interfere with undesired foreign broadcasters, as they go on air along with them, and off air once the undesired broadcasts are over.

click picture for source.

That’s a lot of time and effort for nothing, if nobody in China actually listens.